Chicago — Attorney General Kwame Raoul announced a Kankakee County judge has ruled that a registered sex offender is a Sexually Violent Person.
Kankakee County Circuit Court Judge Kara Bartucci ordered Elkanah Asher, 35, be remanded to the custody of the Illinois Department of Human Services (IDHS). Asher returned to the IDHS Treatment and Detention Facility in Rushville, where he has been since 2020.
“I am pleased with the judge’s decision,” Raoul said. “This offender has demonstrated that he is a significant risk to women and children, and this ruling will prevent him from being able to harm others.”
In 2018, Asher was sentenced to five years in prison for aggravated criminal sexual abuse against an 11-year-old girl. In 2009, he was sentenced to three years in prison for aggravated criminal sexual abuse for sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.
Asher has also pleaded guilty to charges related to his harassment of women. In 2005, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for pursuing a female driver and her female passenger with his vehicle and attempting to sideswipe the car, and, in 2015, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct for repeatedly harassing a woman at her workplace. In 2016, Asher was convicted of a hate crime and sentenced to one year in prison for making racist threats against a Black woman and throwing a beer can at her. This occurred while Asher was on conditional discharge for his 2015 disorderly conduct offense.
Under the Sexually Violent Persons Commitment Act, Raoul’s office files cases seeking to commit offenders to the custody of IDHS. To be committed under the act, a person must have been convicted of a sexually violent offense and suffer from a mental disorder. The Attorney General’s office must also prove that the offender is likely to commit future acts of sexual violence if released from custody. Once committed to IDHS, offenders are re-evaluated on a regular basis to determine if they continue to meet the criteria for commitment as a sexually violent person.
Assistant Attorneys General James Orescanin and Jennifer Zyznar handled the case for Raoul's Sexually Violent Persons Bureau.
